


Asami Sato's Special Occasion

by Minutia_R



Series: Asami Sato's Small Satori [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-05
Updated: 2013-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 11:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/785716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Asami tucks the buns into her basket, next to the flower, and the incense sticks, and the photograph. "They're for my mother's birthday."</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>"Oh," says Tahno, and he looks up, and sees the façade of the police station in front of him. And maybe he starts thinking about something other than himself for a moment, and remembers what everyone knows: why Hiroshi Sato joined the Equalist cause.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asami Sato's Special Occasion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [talibusorabat (hermitcave)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitcave/gifts).



Asami has taken the afternoon off work. Her circumstances may be reduced, but she’s the CEO of Republic City (formerly Future) Industries, and she doesn’t have to explain herself to anybody. In a way, she’s freer than she’s ever been. There’s a swing in her step as she rounds the corner of the street that her new apartment is on, and she smiles as she hears the neighborhood girls chanting their jump-the-water-whip rhyme.

_All Earth's creatures, use your eyes_   
_What if my earthbender dies?_   
_Princess Yue, chieftain's daughter_   
_I'll marry a man who can bend the water_

Neesa is the waterbender, compact and tough but she doesn't talk much; she knows the older girls let her hang around them because she can bend. It's her sister Anniq who's the leader, who organized her friends for a quick and dirty defense of their territory when a group of boys tried to play earth soccer there. They're Water Tribe for the most part, like the neighborhood, although Long Min's mother is Earth Kingdom, and no one is sure who or what grey-eyed Kaila's father is. The girls have taken to Asami much more easily than their parents, begging for rides on her moped, showing off their scrapes and bruises for her admiration.

Anniq sees Asami coming now and runs over, only wincing a little when a stinging spray of water hits her in the legs. Game forgotten, she pokes her nose into Asami’s picnic basket. "Is the moon flower from your boyfriend?"

"No," says Asami. "It's for a special occasion."

"A special smooching occasion, I bet," Long Min puts in slyly.

Asami laughs. "Really, no."

Kaila, bored by boy-talk, has started helping Neesa practice her aim, tossing bits of gravel in the air for Neesa to shoot down with blasts from a curbside puddle. Behind her, Asami hears Kaila squeal, "Good sho—oh no! Run!"

And a man's voice, growling, "You filthy brats! I'll break your faces!"

Asami straightens up, turns, as Kaila and Neesa dash past her. "Don't you have better things to do than pick on little girls?"

With a start, she recognizes the man making the threats: the long, lean frame, the upswept hair. He comes out of his fighting stance, lets the water fall from his hands, except for a few drops which he uses to smooth out the scratch that Neesa has left along one elegant cheekbone. "I don't know," he says, letting his face relax into a slow leer. "What sort of things are you suggesting?"

"Get lost, Tahno," says Asami. "I'm busy."

"So I see." Tahno quirks one eyebrow, and falls into step beside Asami as she walks away. "The CEO of Republic City Industries had a full schedule of hobnobbing with street urchins. You're not holding a grudge against me on behalf of the Fire Ferrets, are you? At least I was only ever accused of cheating in the ring."

Asami doesn't answer, won't let him see that he's gotten to her. She stops at a bakery window and orders a couple of sweet buns.

"Seems to me you've already got those," Tahno drawls.

Asami tucks the buns into her basket, next to the flower, and the incense sticks, and the photograph. "They're for my mother's birthday."

"Oh," says Tahno, and he looks up, and sees the façade of the police station in front of him. And maybe he starts thinking about something other than himself for a moment, and remembers what everyone knows: why Hiroshi Sato joined the Equalist cause. "Oh," he says again.

Asami leaves him on the station steps, opens her basket for the sergeant on duty. "I've cleared it with Chief Bei Fong," Asami tells him, when he sees the incense sticks and matches. "You can ask her if you like."

The sergeant spreads his hands, and takes Asami to the visiting room. The walls are bare and grey, the tables and chairs are bolted to the floor, and two metalbending officers stand by the door on watch.

Asami puts her basket on the table, and sits in the chair opposite her father. She hardly recognizes him anymore, with his beard grown out and his mustache a scraggly mess. The guards have taken his glasses away, leaving him as blind as a badgermole; the first time Asami had been allowed to visit, and seen that, she'd stormed into Chief Bei Fong's office, livid. The chief had calmly explained that Hiroshi had been caught dismantling his glasses for parts; he was also never given chopsticks or a spoon with his meals since the episode with the helicopter. "When someone locked my mother up, she invented metalbending," Chief Bei Fong said. Asami wasn't sure whether this was intended as sympathy, one-upsmanship, or what.

Asami's father keeps his head bowed, his eyes down as Asami takes the buns out of the basket, the flower, her mother's picture, the incense sticks and holder and matches. Asami lights the incense sticks, breathes in the scents of sandalwood and cloves. Her father looks up at her through the smoke.

"You're a traitor," he says. It's the first time he's spoken to her since they fought at the airfield.

"I love you, Daddy." He hears, she knows, the words she said the first time she electrocuted him, a reminder of her strength, and his powerlessness. But the words are true. It would be easier if they weren't.

They sit together, not speaking, until the incense sticks burn down. Then Asami collects the basket, the matches, her mother's picture—she leaves the rest—and walks out of the station.

Tahno is sitting on a bench at the foot of the steps.

Asami is tempted to keep walking, but she has to ask. "What are you still doing here?"

"After Amon took my bending away, the Avatar came to talk to me. She promised she'd get revenge on Amon, and she did." He flips a lock of hair out of his face. "I don't believe in that selfless crap. She just knew it could have been her, in the winner's circle. But you--Amon or no Amon, your father could have owned this city, if you hadn’t stopped him. So why?”

“This is _my_ city.” The fierceness of her words surprises Asami. “I don’t mean mine to own, I mean--the city, the way it is. I’d already lost everything else, he’d no right to take my _home._ ”

Asami’s vision swims; the tears that didn’t fall back at the station are falling now. She rubs a hand against her eyes, knowing she’s smearing her makeup, and looks at Tahno, daring him to say something.

“Thank you,” he says.

She leans forward and brushes his lips with hers, watching his eyes go wide with surprise, almost like they did that day--forget it. “Thank _you_ ,” she says, “for not being as much of a jerk as you could have been. See you around, Tahno,” she adds over her shoulder.

Thank the spirits for small miracles, he doesn’t try to follow her.


End file.
